-Volatile- by True Valhalla

made by True Valhalla for LD19 (COMPO)

Volatile

This is an experimental real time strategy game developed in 48 hours for my first Ludum Dare.

It's a little rough around the edges, and I didn't get to play test it too extensively, so feel free to give it a go!

The code is very rushed and lazy, and I had to cheat a little on the AI to make it in time.

There are 2 available options, a version with music and a version without. The version without music is the Ludum Dare entry, because the music in the "full version" was created by other developers and thus is ineligible for the competition. So please download whichever you'd prefer, and rate N/A for music.

Enjoy! Feedback welcome =)

Reviewed at Game Maker Blog:

http://gamemakerblog.com/2010/12/23/game-review-volatile-matthew-bowden/

Windows	http://www.volatileproductions.com
Source	http://www.volatileproductions.com/uploads/4/4/5/1/4451977/source.gmk
Original URL	https://ludumdare.com/compo/ludum-dare-19/?action=preview&uid=2063

Ratings

Coolness	1%	181
Overall	3.52	34

Audio	2.00	138
Community	3.81	27
Fun	3.36	48
Graphics	4.08	6
Humor	1.54	197
Innovation	3.32	52
Theme	2.68	167

Feedback

alexlarioza

20. Dec 2010 · 03:01 UTC

Wow! Fantastic presentation and concept! You used your 48 hours well. =]

🎤 True Valhalla

20. Dec 2010 · 04:22 UTC

Thanks so much, I appreciate it!

ThatSnail

20. Dec 2010 · 04:35 UTC

Amazing. Love strategy games. AI is a bit dumb though; I took the middle and ended up wrecking all three at once.

Great presentation, music (<-- THIS), and graphics. Don't understand how you do this so fast.

🎤 True Valhalla

20. Dec 2010 · 04:53 UTC

Thanks! I ended up with 2 hours to do the AI because my body insisted on sleeping (bah!), so it's pretty basic...there's 3 variations: balanced, defence, offence -- I spent some time making sure their growth patterns stayed under control and fixing the most embarrassing bug.

I spent 39 out of the 48 hours working on this =)

I'm glad you loved the music and graphics!

Eckolin

20. Dec 2010 · 09:56 UTC

I see several names in the credits. Care to elaborate?

🎤 True Valhalla

20. Dec 2010 · 10:44 UTC

Oh man, this is my first entry into Ludum Dare I assumed using free-to-use music would be OK (evidently I don't know how to make my own music)...checked the rules and I see that isn't allowed.

Um, I'll have to upload a version with no music tomorrow...

toadfrogs

20. Dec 2010 · 10:47 UTC

Um... Ludum Dare is a solo competition... Although the game was very good, you're supposed to do the audio by yourself without the use of anyone else's music :\

🎤 True Valhalla

20. Dec 2010 · 11:23 UTC

May I direct you to the above post =)

And thank you.

barigorokarl

20. Dec 2010 · 11:28 UTC

Really good looking, music didn't work under wine :-/

At first I was a bit confused about what to do and I'm still not sure why you should bother to discover, because you can see your enemies from the start and I found nothing else out there.

But overall it felt smooth and I think the AI does it's job well ;-) Very nice!

barigorokarl

20. Dec 2010 · 11:29 UTC

Ah, ok, apperantly, the music is gone, but that's ok ;-)

🎤 True Valhalla

20. Dec 2010 · 11:33 UTC

Thank you.

I haven't removed the music yet, as I'm not at my PC until tomorrow, so I'm not sure why it didn't work. But that's OK. You can manually open to audio files if you want to hear it though ;D

I was hoping to add a tutorial but didn't have time; I wanted to highlight that unlocking cells acts as a resource production multiplier.

Thanks for playing!

Squax

20. Dec 2010 · 14:24 UTC

Really good work - congrats!

Gornova

20. Dec 2010 · 21:32 UTC

Simply, great!

🎤 True Valhalla

20. Dec 2010 · 22:33 UTC

Thank you =)

AClockWorkLemon

21. Dec 2010 · 04:44 UTC

Really Good job there, shame baut the music, because its really good. Hopefully you'll continue working on this one :D

🎤 True Valhalla

21. Dec 2010 · 09:13 UTC

I plan to, thank you =)

I have also now uploaded 2 separate versions, with and without music.

Desert Dog

22. Dec 2010 · 02:59 UTC

Strategy game was a bit slow for me, and it was tough to figure out how to play, but that's expected I guess given the time restrictions.

Quite a jar to see the default graphics of the message box.. everything else was looking really great!

🎤 True Valhalla

22. Dec 2010 · 05:04 UTC

Time really is a killer for a game like this! Need LD I am going to lower the scope of my entry =)

Endurion

22. Dec 2010 · 10:42 UTC

Very polished game!
Seems feature complete. It takes quite a bit of time to get built up but I got squished by taking on two AIs at the same time.

PS: The green on your download page is making my eyes bleed ;)

🎤 True Valhalla

22. Dec 2010 · 11:02 UTC

Thank you!

The UI has a lot of features, as do the technicalities, but I feel like I didn't get to add enough features to the gameplay itself.

@PS, I might need to reconsider my site design (it's extremely new)...but I like it lol xD

Thanks for the feedback.

huhwhozat

23. Dec 2010 · 16:30 UTC

A very solid and enjoyable game. Too bad you didn't know that you had to make your own music! This would've benefited highly from some audio. It got a bit annoying having to keep clicking buildings to place them. Perhaps there could be a keyboard shortcut to place all of the buildings, e.g. 1234. I also experienced some heavy lag, but that was because 3/4 of the board was filled with mines/missile turrets by both me and the AI. Ai seems a bit too dominant early game, until you figure out how to deal with it. It's a bit of a slog cleaning up any one color also. Overall, very good and well-polished game and only a few nit-picky things to improve.

huhwhozat

23. Dec 2010 · 16:38 UTC

Also... game window could be larger. I found the fullscreen, but I wanted to see more of the board at once. Stuf was a bit small to see too.

🎤 True Valhalla

24. Dec 2010 · 01:11 UTC

Thanks for playing; I agree with your flaws! I've got lots to fix and improve upon. Another 48 hours would have helped a lot ;D

By the way, this Ludum Dare version of Volatile was featured on Game Maker Blog @ http://gamemakerblog.com/2010/12/23/game-review-volatile-matthew-bowden/

philomory

29. Dec 2010 · 09:36 UTC

A very good entry; sadly, after a few minutes of gameplay the fps dropped below 10 and stayed there, regularly hitting 6 and occasionally 1. Too many pretty particle effects for this machine, I think ;). Nonetheless, I stuck it out long enough to defeat one of the three computer players; also, it made me happy to see that they also fought each other. Overall, a very nice entry.

dmennenoh

03. Jan 2011 · 12:36 UTC

Really fun, nice work.